Author: James

AC Cobble, author of the Benjamin Ashwood series was kind enough to answer ten of our questions about his books and his writing life.

What do you like most about the writing process?

My favorite part is at the end of developmental editing and when I start copy editing. That is when I get a sense for what the book has turned into. That’s also when I’m putting in the finishing touches, including most of my best lines. I really enjoy reading over the book at this stage and making those final tweaks. Usually, I find it’s turned out better than I expected (which isn’t always saying much).

Which books have had the greatest impact on your writing?

Robert Jordan’s Eye of the World had a huge impact on me. I think Jordan nailed the perfect fantasy opening with that novel and it spun my imagination into overdrive. There were some stumbles later in the series, but that book was special.

Several people have noted some similarities between how Eye of the World and Benjamin Ashwood begin. Sometimes I regret it now, but I did that intentionally. I meant it as an homage to both Jordan and Tolkien’s work, but the plot quickly goes in an entirely different direction. It’s fair to say though, without Eye of the World, Benjamin Ashwood would be a different series.

Which of your characters is the easiest for you to write, and which is the most challenging? Why?

Ben and Rhys are very easy for me to write. Ben has a clear moral compass which guides his actions, and Rhys is just a lot of fun. In some scenes, the two of them function as the angel and the devil on my shoulders.

I wouldn’t say it’s difficult, but I spend a lot more time thinking about Amelie than the boys. This is Ben’s story, and because of that he has to be the leader and the focus, but it’s important to me that Amelie comes across as a strong person as well. I like to think that there could be an equally compelling story written from her point of view – not that I plan to do that. Writing opposite gender authentically can always be a challenge too. I frequently worry that I’m not getting it right.

Do you plot your books in detail, or develop the story as you are writing it?

I start with about a 3 page outline which includes all of the locations, major scenes, and turning points. From there, I start filling in the blanks A to Z. I frequently throw out sections of the outline and insert something new as I go. Those spur of the moment modifications have never changed the overall plot, but they have frequently turned into my favorite scenes.

What do readers most enjoy about your Benjamin Ashwood books?

The pace and the action. I received a lot of feedback about that after Book 1, and I’ve made intentional decisions to keep things brisk and hopping in the later books. I have to stop myself sometimes from lingering on some obscure bit of world building or a treatise on economics. The lesson for me is that no matter how much fun I’m having imagining the world, the readers want to know the character, like the character, then keep the damn story moving!

Which fantasy books written in the last few years would you recommend to readers of The Book Base?

When and where do you do most of your writing?

I recently went full-time as an author and now nearly all of my writing is done in my home office. I’ve tried going to coffee shops and other places because there are three kids ages four and under running around the house, but, home is more comfortable. I’ve gotten pretty good at making coffee too.

Prior to going full time, I travelled frequently for my “day job”. Huge portions of my first three books were written on planes and all over the world. Singapore, India, Germany, Poland, the UK, the Netherlands, and the Philippines all snuck into the pages. You can see some of the influences if you are familiar with those countries.

Who would you want to play the role of Ben if the Benjamin Ashwood series was filmed for the big screen?

An unknown up and comer. Ben is set so strongly in my head that it would be difficult for me to separate him and any other character I was familiar with. I feel the same about Amelie.

Recently, I had a discussion with some fans and several of us felt Idris Elba would make a great Rhys.

If you could have written any book in history, which would it be and why?

Old Man and the Sea. I don’t mind admitting I’m a complete hack compared to Hemmingway. The simplicity of his language and the complexity of his themes are stunning to me. I know I will never be able to write like that, but I wish I could.

What are your writing and publishing plans for 2018?

Empty Horizon: Benjamin Ashwood Book 4 in December 2017 – and it can be pre-ordered on Amazon right now!Burning Tower: Benjamin Ashwood Book 5 in June 2018Weight of the Crown: Benjamin Ashwood Book 6 in December 2018

Christopher G. Nuttall, author of The Schooled in Magic series, The Empire’s Corps series and The Royal Sorceress books, to name just a few of the dozens of titles he’s published, was kind enough to answer ten of our questions about his books and his writing life.

What do you like most about the writing process and which parts do you like the least?

What do I like? I like creating worlds and stories and watching them slowly come into existence. It’s fun to shape a world, then outline how it changes as the world changes too; it’s fun, too, to craft a character and watch him/her grow up.

What don’t I like? The editing. Oh God, the editing. Editing is vitally important – a writer who edits himself has a fool for an editor – but it can also be painful. And yet, it just has to be done.

Which books have had the greatest impact on your writing?

It’s hard to say. I read a lot of history and military books, ranging from stories of kings and queens – and military campaigns – to the nuts and bolts that give the universe its realism (insofar as a universe that has magic is realistic.)

There have been quite a few books that outline limitations faced by historical figures, including something as simple as the time delay between something happening and the guys in charge hearing about it. It’s odd to realise that the distance between London and Oxford would have been quite long, to our ancestors. Britain was big in those days. Now, it’s barely a matter of hours and Britain is a tiny island.

And I’ve read a lot of fiction books that taught me what I liked – and what I wanted to see – and what I didn’t like. Books that indulge in too much technobabble annoy me, books that focus too much on one particular subset of the reading community only appeal to me when I’m the target. I try to spread a wider net than just one particular group.

Which of your characters is the easiest for you to write, and which is the most challenging? Why?

That’s a tough question to answer. Emily of Schooled in Magic draws a lot from my own experience, which makes her both easy and complicated to write. Cat of The Zero Blessing also draws a little from my experiences, but she’s younger and she had a very different upbringing from myself. This is true of Emily too, but at least Emily grew up in a society I understood.

I’ve had people tell me that I write great female characters and others tell me that I’ve clearly never met a woman. My wife laughed her head off when that review was posted, as we’d been married for about a year at that time.

Cat is perhaps the most complicated, because she’s twelve. On one hand, she has to be a little immature, even though she does come from a society that doesn’t really have a ‘teenage’ phase. On the other hand, she cannot be too immature or she’ll alienate older readers, who’ll see her as an idiot child. I did think about making her older, but if her story had started four years later she would probably have been a lot sourer, a lot more set in her ways. Besides, I did someone like that years ago.

I also had some problems with writing John Naiser, as he’s the first viewpoint character I wrote who happened to be gay. It wasn’t the be-all and end-all of his character – and I was careful not to make it too explicit at first, just to see if anyone picked up on the subtext (they did) – but it was tricky. A book written too strongly in the homosexual gaze (or the female gaze) will be off-putting to many readers, just as a book written too strongly in the male gaze would be off-putting to others. I wasn’t writing erotica, after all! I’ve been told I did well and I did badly, so … <shrug>.

It’s the social attitudes that can be a problem. I’m currently planning a novella focused on Alassa, something that would fill in the gap between Schooled in Magic 14 and Schooled in Magic 15. Alassa is a very different person to Emily, one with social attitudes that Emily dislikes; Alassa is a princess, she sees herself as occupying the top of the food chain, she thinks of (most) commoners as somewhat less than human … and she doesn’t see anything wrong with any of this. It’s hard to keep her what she is – a person who grew up in a different world – without making her dreadfully unsympathetic.

And clashes between Emily’s view of decent behaviour and everyone else’s have always been part of the series.

Do you plot your books in detail, or develop the story as you are writing it?

A little of both, I think.

I generally write out a two-three page outline of the story, depending on how complex the story actually is, then change it as I go along if something else seems a better idea. There are quite a few scenes in various books that bear little resemblance to the original plot. Having at least some idea of how the book is meant to go is important, particularly if you need to leave clues scattered throughout the text. You can’t just decide that the butler did it when you reach the last page.

There are times when I have plotted out two or three novels in advance, just to ensure everything fits into place. And times when I have discarded those plots because I had a better idea midway through.

What do readers most enjoy about your Schooled in Magic series?

I’ve had a lot of different answers, really. Some people enjoy the stories themselves, some people comment on how Emily is changing her new world, some people like seeing a female character who isn’t a Mary Sue or a man in a woman’s body … I’ve had the series called a worthy successor to Harry Potter and The Worst Witch, as well as Least Darkness Fall and other time travel books.

Which fantasy books written in the last few years would you recommend to readers of The Book Base?

Pretty much anything by Brandon Sanderson, although some are harder going than others. I would advise starting with his stand-alone books (although they are all part of a greater universe) and then moving on to the longer sets.

Where do you do most of your writing?

I have an office in my house, where I work. That’s pretty much a must for any serious writer – when we stay in Malaysia (my wife’s Malay) I work hard to find a place with an office – or at least a private room – where I can work. I’ve been told that there are people who can write on trains or the plane, but I can’t do that.

Who would you want to play the role of Emily if the Schooled in Magic series was filmed for the big screen?

I’m not that familiar with actresses, to be honest. I did see Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntress and I think she looks the part, at least back then, but I don’t know who else to suggest.

If you could have written any book in history, which would it be and why?

One of the books that have been really influential, perhaps. Starship Troopers, Harry Potter, Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell. Or the books that impressed me, when I read them: Mistborn, The Night’s Dawn Trilogy, The Commonwealth and Void books …

What are your writing and publishing plans for 2018?

That’s a tricky question to answer, as my plans are a little vague.

I’m going to write two more Schooled in Magic books and the third and final The Zero Enigma book. I’m going to write a fourth Ark Royal trilogy and the second Angel in the Whirlwind trilogy. I also have plans for a sequel series to Bookworm and a fifth Learning Experience book. But I think it may depend on matters beyond my control.

David Estes, author of The Fatemarked Epic, The Dwellers Saga and The Country Saga, dropped by The Book Base to answer ten questions about his fantasy books and his writing life.

What do you like about the writing process and which parts do you like the least?

Creation! One of the coolest and most satisfying things about writing is the power to create something from nothing. Worlds, characters, battles, suspense…it’s extremely rewarding. There are times when I look back and think, “How did I do that?” Even I don’t know sometimes.

If I think too hard about the fact that my stories and characters and world wouldn’t have existed if I hadn’t sat down day after day, month after month, year after year and taken the time to pour my emotions and ideas into my writing…well, I go a little crazy. If anything, the ability to create something only motivates me more. I think that motivation is best highlighted by my bestselling epic fantasy series, The Fatemarked Epic.

Which books have had the greatest impact on your writing?

So many! On the epic fantasy side, my favorite authors are Tolkien, Sanderson, and George R. R. Martin. Tolkien’s worldbuilding had a huge influence on me. As a kid, I read The Lord of the Rings more than a dozen times, until the cover was falling off of my books. In fact, one of the reasons I wrote more than twenty books before I attempted to write an epic fantasy was because I didn’t think I could live up to the high standards set by Tolkien. When I finally finished The Fatemarked Epic, I was surprised to find myself feeling worthy. I would be proud to share it with Tolkien were he still alive.

Sanderson’s creativity motivates me to be MORE. More everything. More creative, more focused on creating complex characters. Just more.

And Martin, well, his books have shown me that it’s okay to be EPIC. That’s one reason why The Fatemarked Epic is nearly a million words spread across five books. I had a lot of stories to tell, and I didn’t want to skimp on any of them.

Which of your characters is the easiest for you to write, and which is the most challenging? Why?

For me, the easiest characters to write are those that are three-dimensional. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether they are good or evil or something in between, as long as they have depth. That tends to make the words flow onto the page.

A good example is Rhea Loren from Fatemarked. She is quickly becoming the most hated/loved character in any of my 30+ novels. It’s her inner conflict that makes her so polarizing. We all go through hard times, and she is no exception. How we react to the crap the world throws at us is what defines us. Rhea reacts in a lot of different ways as she learns who she is and who she wants to be.

The hardest characters to write are those I can’t become in my mind. Usually they don’t have enough depth and I’m forced to rewrite them or scrap them altogether. I refuse to write a character that doesn’t come alive in my mind. It’s not fair to me or to the reader.

Do you plot your books in detail, or develop the story as you are writing?

I’m more a pantser than a plotter, because I like being surprised by the direction my books go in. Also, I’m a firm believer in creativity breeds creativity. So the more I write, the more the ideas flow, which allows me to formulate the story as I go.

That being said, for a massive undertaking like The Fatemarked Epic, I had to do some planning. Before I started writing, I drew a map, mapped out the royal family trees for three generations, created my magic system, and wrote a summarized 500 years of history that I could sprinkle throughout the series. Then I started writing!

The Fatemarked Epic has been compared to The Lord of the Rings and Throne of Glass. What are the similarities, and what sets your series apart from these works?

It’s an honor to be compared to other epic series. The Lord of the Rings in particular gave me warm fuzzies, for reasons I explained earlier. Honestly, Fatemarked has little in common with either series, except for the epic nature, dragons, and magic.

I think it gets compared to LOTR because of the epic battles between good and evil, and compared to Throne of Glass because of the huge cast and extent of worldbuilding. But everything else is different, from the magic system, to the types of characters, to the plotlines. Regardless, it’s an honor!

Which fantasy books written in the last few years would you recommend to readers of The Book Base?

So many! Anything by Brandon Sanderson, his writing is flawless. If you haven’t read LOTR, read it!

Also, I recently read Battle Mage by Peter Flannery and was so impressed with the quality of his writing and worldbuilding. And it’s standalone book at around 800 pages! Happy reading!

When and where do you do most of your writing?

In the morning between 6am and 8am. Sometimes in bed, sometimes at a desk. I write almost every day.

Who would you want to play the role of Annise if The Fatemarked Epic was filmed for the big screen? What about Grey and Rhea?

I suck at these questions! Honestly, I have no idea. All three characters stand out so much in my mind that it would be hard to get comfortable with anyone playing any of them. However, my cover artist has brought them to life on my covers. Annise is portrayed in battle on he cover of Fatemarked, Rhea is on the cover of Truthmarked battling a sea monster, and Grey is shown on Deathmarked fighting in the desert.

If you could have written any book in history, which would it be and why?

I don’t think anyone would be surprised that I wish I’d written The Lord of the Rings. It sets the standard for all things epic fantasy. And those movies! SO GOOD.

What are your writing and publishing plans for 2018?

Great question! With the last book in The Fatemarked Epic, Lifemarked, releasing on November 21st of 2017 (available for preorder on Amazon), I’m planning a new epic fantasy series! I have a title for the first book and the series already picked out, which I shall reveal in 2018. I’ve also mapped out some of the basics of the world, characters, and plot. I plan to start writing it in December of 2017 and then work on it for all of 2018. I expect it to be at least a trilogy, but it could be longer, depending on how things go (I’m a pantser, remember?). Although it’s both sad and exciting finishing a series, it’s always fun starting a new one.

David Estes has a great website and he is offering a free Fatemarked short story to all of those who sign up to his mailing list.